The  Basur  IS  Asur

 Separating Meat and Milk

by Shani Rosenblatt and Ricki Rapps

When one reads the Pasuk "Lo Tevashel G'di be'chalev imo", they assume that this Pasuk refers to only eating, cooking and getting pleasure from milk and meat together. However, the restriction of meat and milk also applies to kitchen appliances and utensils, as well. In this report we will be discussing the requirements of separation between meat and milk.

It is Asur for a person to eat milk on a table where there is meat, and vice versa, with meat on a milk table.  The reason for this is because a person might mix the two together, accidentally. On the other hand, if no one is eating at the table and you would just desire to place the food on the table, then it is Mutar. You must make sure that the meat and the milk do not come in contact with one another.

            It is Asur for two people, one eating meat, and the other milk, to eat at the same table. However, there are a few exceptions.  If they cant reach the others plate, then it is okay to share the table. They may also share the same table if they put some reminder, like a place mat or two tablecloths, to remind them that they are eating separately and may not share their food with one another. They may also place something between them, to indicate separation, like flowers, etc.

            Just as it is Asur for hot meat and milk to touch each other, so too it is Asur for cold meat and milk to touch each other. If cold meat and milk does touch one another, they need to be rinsed off (hadacha). However, Rabbis further prohibit meat and milk touching one another when they are cold, for they are afraid that we might not remember to rinse it off.       

Rabbis prohibit bread that is dairy or meat. Bread is usually pareve, and therefore it is hardly ever a question of whether bread is dairy or meat. Therefore, if you make bread that is either dairy or meat, a person might think it is pareve and eat it with the opposite meal. If one desires to bake bread that is meat or dairy then they must shape the dough in an unusual form before they bake it, so that it is clear that that bread is not pareve (Rosenberg, "Meat and Dairy")

It is preferable to have two tablecloths. However, if you only are able to have one tablecloth, then the tablecloth should be cloth and not plastic. You should also machine wash it between using it for milk and meat. If the tablecloth is quite long, then you may share it for both meat and milk.

The Rabbis consider glass to be non-porous, therefore, they say that glass can be used for both milk and meat as long as it is cleaned well after use. According to the Ashkenazim, the glass should be soaked and not used for a period of 72 hours, but according to Sephardic Poskim, the glass does not require any soaking or waiting.

A refrigerator or freezer can be used for both milk and meat. A person must be careful that milk and meat do not come in contact with one another and that nothing should drip onto another to avoid mixing milk and meat together. A toaster oven can be used for either only milk or only meat.  They may not be used for both milk and meat (Kosherquest.com).

It is Asur to eat bread at a dairy meal, which was sliced and leftover from a meat meal, or vice versa. The purpose for not doing so is, maybe some of the meat food touched the bread, causing it to become meat. Therefore, it would be Asur to be eaten with dairy food. The part of the bread that wasn’t sliced at the meat meal may be eaten with dairy, if the meat did not touch it. If your hands were not clean when you touched the bread, you may not eat the bread with dairy.  You also had to have in mind when you cut the bread that you would like it to remain pareve. If bread was sliced with a meat knife, then the bread may not be eaten with dairy, because the fat (Shamnunit) from the knife might get onto the bread. If you would like to make the bread pareve after cutting it with a meat knife, then you may cut off the part, which you cut with the meat knife, with a pareve knife. By doing so, you would be removing the part of the bread, which has the fat (shamnunit) of the meat knife.

There is a difference of opinion, if the knife was scrubbed before you used it to cut the bread. Some Rabbis say it is Mutar to eat the bread with dairy, if it was scrubbed with soap and steel wool or hard plastic pad.  On the other hand, some say you can only eat it with dairy if you absolutely need to. You may also eat the bread with dairy meals, if you stuck the knife, with which you cut meat, into the ground ten times (Duch'ka D'sakinah), which removes the fat (shamnunit). Many people have knives that are pareve; therefore, they do not need to go through all this trouble (Rosenberg, "Meat and Dairy").

A stainless steel sink is preferred, because stainless steel can be kashered whereas porcelain is very difficult to Kasher since it has pores. If one has a double sink then one side should be used for milk and the other side for meat. In a case where there is only one sink, then utensils should never be placed directly into the sink without a tray inside. The sink should be treated at "traif", or non-kosher.  A tray or rack should be placed into the sink in order to avoid the contact between milk and meat. In a sink without a rack, you may not soak either utensils or food.

Dishwashers can be used for milk and for meat, separately, but not at the same time. Between a milk load, the dishwasher should go through one cycle and then you may place the meat load in (or vice versa). The dishes should be washed very well before placed into the dishwasher. There should be separate racks for milk and for meat. The ideal thing that many people do if they only have one dishwasher is that they use the dishwasher for either milk or meat and they wash the other one in the sink.

It is preferable to have either one stove range for milk and a plug in burner for meat, or vice versa. In a case where a person only has one stove range, then milk in a milchigs pot and meat in a fleishigs pot should not be cooked at the same time on the stove top, to avoid contact between the two. In a case where a person needs to use to stove to cook both milk and meat at the same time, the pots should be covered and a tray, or metal bored should be placed between the pots to avoid splattering, or contact between the milk and meat foods. In an oven, both milk and meat should not be cooked at the same time. If you are to cook milk in an oven, which meat has been previously cooked in, one must make sure that the meat not spill or splatter and to be very careful that the splatter of the meat should not come in contact with the milk (and vice versa). If it does splatter, then you must make sure to wipe it down (Wagschal, "The Practical Guide to Kashrut").

Blenders and food processors require separate blades and containers for meat and milk. One must make sure that the knife they cut with should be of the same category, either milk or meat, as the food processor they will be placing the cut food into. (For ex: if one is to cut an onion, which can absorb taste from the knife very quickly, they should make sure that if they are going to be placing it into a meat processor, they need to use a meat knife).

It is best to have a set of towels for meat and a separate set of towels for milk. If one only has one set of towels for both milk and meat, then it should be washed between uses.  A hot water urn can be used to place hot water into either meat or milk cups as long as the only thing that was originally placed into the urn was water or anything else which is pareve.

Fish may not be eaten with meat, however if one cooks fish in a milk pot then they must eat the fish with milk utensils.  If one tastes soup with meat or chicken in it just to see if the flavor is okay, and then he spits it out, they are still considered "meaty" even if he does not swallow any soup. If a person takes vitamins, such as liver pills, which are regarded as "meat pills", they are not required to have to wait a period of time before eating milk. After swallowing the pills, one is allowed to eat milk.

If one has a non-Jewish maid, they must make sure to keep watch on their maid to make sure that milk and meat is not mixed together. Locks should be placed on the milk or meat cabinets in order to be careful that milk utensils are not used for meat and vice versa. It is preferable to make unannounced visitations into the house while the non-Jewish maid is there, or to have a Jewish neighbor check on the non-Jewish maid periodically, just to make sure she is not doing anything which is Asur (Kosherquest.com).

            If you served salad at a meat meal, with a pareve bowl and utensil, then you are allowed to eat the salad with dairy, because you suppose that no meat touched the salad. However, if you served salad at a meat meal, and people used their own silverware to take salad from the bowl, then it is Asur to eat the salad at a dairy meal, for the chances of meat going into the salad are very great. You should not eat a salad at a dairy meal, which was used at a meat meal, which had small children eating at it. The children might have caused the salad to become meat, and therefore we must be strict and not eat the salad with dairy. A person, who is strict and doesn’t eat it at a dairy meal, deserves to be praised.

            A person must have two separate salt shakers, one for dairy and one for meat, if the salt is open and food can come in contact with it. You are allowed to use the same shakers at both meals, if the covers are closed, and no meat can have get inside. It is recommended that you rub off the salt shakers between the meals, in case any Shamnunit was left on it.

            It is not common for a person to change a meat pot to dairy, and vice versa. For, if you do, you might forget that you changed the pot and end up cooking meat in a milk pot. There are circumstances where you can change the status of the pot. If you are already Kashering the pot for Pesach, or if you are Kashering a pot that became Traif, you may change the status of the pot at that point. However, it is not often that we change our pots, for it can result in a lot of confusion and mistakes in the future (Rosenberg, "Meat and Dairy").

            There are many Sefarim, which have commentaries on this topic as well. In the Shulchan Aruch Yoreh De'ah - Chelek Alef, in Hilchot Basar Vechalav in pey, chet it talks about separation between meat and milk. It says that while you are eating meat on a table, a person cannot eat milk on the same table.  This only refers to eating at the table and not placing food onto the table. There is no problem with placing meat and milk on the same table if you do not intend to eat there.

            If, for a reason, you can only use one table, and then you will have to put some kind of reminder between the person eating meat and the person eating milk. This is to make sure they stay separate while eating. You can put separate tablecloths, flowerpots, or many other objects between the two people to show separation. However, you cannot place a food item, which one of the people is eating from, as a reminder between the two.  There is a time when two people, one eating meat and the other eating milk, can share a table while eating the two different foods. This is when the two people eating are strangers and do not know each other. They do not need any reminder between them, because it is not likely for strangers to share and mix food with each other.

            In the olden days, they did not have salt shakers. They served salt in a dish, and in order to get salt you dipped your bread into the dish of salt. The actual Halacha is that you don’t need separate salt shakers. However, it is recommended to use separate salt shakers for meat and dairy. Today, the majority of people have salt shakers, which don’t come in contact with food. Therefore, it is unlikely for us to have problems of the salt shakers becoming meat or milk.

            The Gemara says the same thing as the Shulchan Aruch. The Gemara mentions this topic in Chulin Daf Kuf-zaiin and Daled. The Rambam, however, does not mention anything on this topic. We assume that by the Rambam not mentioning anything, it must mean that he agrees with the Shulchan Aruch and Gemara, or else he would have stated and argued his view.

            As you can see separating between meat and milk is an important topic, which every Jew should be aware of. A person needs to take notice of the different things in their home to make sure that nothing they do will make the oyver on the isur of mixing meat and milk together.

Works Cited

1. Wagschal, Rabbi S. The Practical Guide to Kashruth 

2. Rosenberg, Rabbi Ehud. The Artscroll's book: Meat and Dairy

3. <www. Google.com____Separating between meat and milk>

4. <www.Kosherquest.com>